Our Executive Director, Keith Neuman, has decided to step down from running the Institute to slow down a bit and relocate with his wife Joan back to Ottawa.

Keith played a key role in establishing the Institute in 2006, and since 2011 as Executive Director, has built the organization to what it is today. We will miss him in this role but he will continue to work with the Institute on a part time basis from the nation’s capital. 

I am very pleased to announce that our new incoming Executive Director will be Andrew Parkin. Andrew is currently the Director of The Mowat Centre, and he previously held senior positions with the Council of Ministers of Education, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, and the Centre for Research and Information on Canada. See short bio below.

Over the past several years, Andrew has worked with our Institute in several capacities – as a consultant on the Black Experience Project, as co-author on a report on Canada’s performance on education in an international context, and as a partner on our recent Confederation of Tomorrow study. Andrew is wonderfully qualified to run the Environics Institute and I look forward to working with him.

Andrew starts on June 1^st.

BIO:

Andrew Parkin has 25 years of experience leading public policy research on a variety of issues related to federalism and democracy, education and social policy, and the Canadian political community.  His career has been driven by a commitment to bringing diverse interests together, mobilizing evidence to inform decision-making and deliberation, and bridging the gap between policy research and public dialogue.

Andrew has previously held a variety of senior positions including Director of the Mowat Centre, Director General of the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC), Associate Executive Director and Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, and Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada.

A political sociologist by background, he completed his post-doctorate at Dalhousie University, his Ph.D. at the University of Bradford (U.K.), and his B.A. (Honours) at Queen’s University. He has received several academic honours, including a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications on Canadian public policy, and is a frequent commentator in both English- and French-language media.